Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) for Modern Greek:

the “filoglossia+” courseware

Dr. Frieda CharalabopoulouInstitute for Language & Speech Processing/”Athena”

R.C.Educational Technology Division

Athens, Greece

15th Annual Educational EventAFGLC-ICHS Forum/Conference 2010

“Hellenic Values in a Global Civilization:Engaging the Colleges, Universities and Citizens”

February 19-20, 2010Florida

Institute for Language and Speech Processing (ILSP)/”Athena” R.C.

•founded in Athens (Greece) in 1991 under the auspices of the General Secretariat of Research and Technology of the Ministry of Development•one of the Institutes of the newly established “Athena” Research and Innovation Centre in Information, Communication and Knowledge Technologies

ILSP’s running aim: to be a centre of excellence in basic and applied R&D in the areas of:•Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL)•Distance learning for language, culture and music•Natural Language Processing•Speech processing, recognition and synthesis, music and sound processing

ILSP technologies

ILSP / R.C. "Athena" develops technologies on the following axes:•multimedia e-learning platforms for language and music•digital monolingual, multilingual and multimedia corpora and dictionaries, computational lexical databases•Greek text processing and analysis for information retrieval and knowledge extraction•multimodal and multilingual information processing and retrieval•machine translation and translation aid tools•stand-alone and integrated voice recognition and text-to-speech systems for Greek•assistive technologies for disabled people•digital curation and presentation of cultural content

ILSP’s products and services

•a number of patented innovations•over 35 end-user globally marketed products•a rich palette of Greek language resources and tools•quality service and support provision (design, technology integration, consulting)•the foundation of spin-offs exploiting technological outcomes with a strong potential in dynamic market areas (voice enhanced services and appliances, e-learning, e-publishing, media monitoring, etc).

Language education and cultural products

•filoglossia+: learning Greek as a second/foreign language•XENION: bilingual Greek-English-Greek dictionary, aimed at English speakers who visit Greece and Cyprus and want a concise tool, a guide, whereby they can look up the meanings of words and find out how to say some key phrases in Greek.•THIMISSIS: CD-ROM series aiming at the teaching of the ancient Greek language in combination with history, civilisation and archaeology. Addressed to junior high school children.•“A knight in the castle of letters” and “A knight in the castle of words”: a complete course for learning Greek, which covers the beginner, intermediary and advanced level, addressed to elementary students.•Nea logomatheia: for teaching Greek as a mother tongue, addressed to students of primary and lower secondary education.  •Sappho: a series of DVD-ROMs, books and DVDs on the history and civilization of Greek islands (Naxos, Santorini, Andros, Paros, Lesvos, Mykonos - Delos).•"CLEOPATRA”: CD-ROM, a voyage through the Hellenistic years (starting from the birth of Alexander the Great, to the glorious moments of queen Cleopatra VII)

“filoglossia+”: Modern Greek for beginners

•Four multimedia CD-ROMs addressed to:• Young and adult learners of Modern Greek (beginners)• Hellenes of the Diaspora• Foreigners who wish to learn Greek• Repatriated Greeks• Immigrants who live in Greece

•Available in 6 versions with 6 support languages: English, Chinese, Albanian, Bulgarian, Romanian and Serbian

•May be employed in guided instruction (classroom) or as a self-learning tool

Basic features•User-friendly and attractive interface•Plenty of video and audio files (with the participation of native speakers) •Links between texts and video•Recording facilities•English translations•Pronunciation exercises•Listening exercises•Spelling and reading comprehension exercises•Vocabulary exercises•Grammar exercises•Useful phrases•Automatic phonetic transcription of any Greek word•Pronunciation of any Greek word by a synthetic voice•Bilingual electronic dictionary (Greek-English) including examples of use, noun and adjective declension and verb tenses•Cultural aspects of ancient and contemporary Greek culture and civilization

Structure

Useful phrases

exercisesexercises

Dialogue

Grammar

exercises

exercises

Vocabulary

Dialogue

Basic Vocabulary

Additional vocabulary

Grammar

Useful phrases

Dictionary

Culture

filoglossia+ 1:Contemporary Greek paintersThe Cyclades tour

filoglossia+ 2: Greek Archaeological Treasures

filoglossia+ 3:Neoclassical buildings Music anthology (Part I)

filoglossia+ 4:Delos: a photographic tourMusic anthology (Part II)

Speech tools

1. Automatic Phonetic Transcription Tool (converts arbitrary written input to its International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) equivalent)

2. Text-to-Speech converter: produces an audio output from its textual input using a digitized voice.

Evaluation

First Prize in Education at the MÖBIUS Multimedia Awards 2005

Reviewed by the CALICO (Computer-Assisted Language Instruction Consortium-USA) experts

Evaluated by 100 learners of Modern Greek who live abroad

1. 1. Modern Greek courses on-line (free!): http://www.xanthi.ilsp.gr/filog/

2. 2. Modern Greek for English-speaking learners: 2 books with English language support

More ILSP actionsfor Greek language learners

Future plans for the promotion of the Greek language

(i) development of a Web Portal for Modern Greek as a second/foreign language with multilanguage support: this Portal will be accessible by the citizens of the world who are interested in Modern Greek and will comprise Greek language courses and features of cultural value (funding required!!)

(ii)Development of courseware for the language needs of the intermediate and advanced learner of Modern Greek

(iii)Accelerated Greek language courses, for those who wish to develop survival communication skills in Modern Greek

(iv)Mobile-assisted Greek language learning…

Ευχαριστώ!Thank you!

Frieda Charalabopoulou, Ph.D.

e-mail: frieda@ilsp.gr

Institute for Language and Speech Processing (ILSP)/”Athena” R.C.

Artemidos 6 and Epidavrou Str., 151 25 Maroussi

Athens-Greece

URL: www.ilsp.gr